The Wheels on the bus go flat flat flat

OK so the wheels didn't go flat, but our bus did bust a hose and cause a 3hour delay in the middle of nowhere. It was leaking very badly and we had to get off the bus and wait, but did we let that get us down??? Absolutely not – It was 3 hours of playtime!! We had no end of amusement amongst ourselves with the games we came up with. From leap frog to human chains to running around crazy, it was some much needed time to just spend with one another. So the bus comes back fixed and we reload and head off once more. (In case you are wondering we are on our way to Las Vegas, Nevada). Twenty or so minutes down the road the hose breaks loose again so we spent another 30 minutes (roughly) repairing that problem. Now it is late, we are slightly tired and cranky and finally off to our last U.S. city. Needless to say 25 hours is a fair amount of time to be sitting next to someone and so we got to know our bus dates pretty well. We watched movies, talked, wrote in our journal, played I SPY, etc. It was fun finding ways to keep ourselves busy. We arrived in Las Vegas without any further problems and got settled in to our host families. Last night after Host Pick-up, my roommate (Yuri) and I were treated to a fantastic Mexican restaurant. It was scrumptious!! I had some really yummy fajitas. This week is full of Stand for Peace, Community Service and a jam-packed show on Friday with a much anticipated free day on Saturday. I haven’t explained Stand for Peace yet?!?!?! Silly me; Allow me to correct that mistake… Stand for Peace is a peace and diversity training program aimed at middle school and high school students. It uses games and activities and dialoguing to teach students better ways of communicating with each other and the world around them. It helps them appreciate the differences amongst themselves and to better appreciate those differences, which is really what Up With People is all about – pretty cool if you ask me.
I am still amazed at the way my learning curve and growth rate are exponentially increasing. It seems there is no end in sight of the things I have to learn and have learned all ready. I know I say this a lot, but there really is no better way of saying it. It’s hard to say specifically each thing that has impacted me or that has helped me to grow and in what ways, but I HAVE grown so much. I love getting to learn about all these other cultures and I have added many places to my list of places to visit (like Brazil and Uganda). I am anxious to be in Europe. I love Europe (at least the part that I have seen, which would be Ireland), and I can’t wait to experience the different dynamics that comes along with being in Europe. Different food, different people, different measuring system… It’s going to be so much fun. If any of you reading this want an address for me while I am in Europe just let me know. Or if anyone reading wants a postcard just drop me a line!!! I’ll be sending postcards weekly hopefully. Well folks, that’s all she wrote for now. Tune in next time for more adventures in Vegas starring Cast B 2007!!! Until then – VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!

Environmental Week in Up With People

Portland, Oregon is a very environmentally aware city. As such we felt we should educate ourselves on the environment, the impact we have on it and what we can do to protect it. So on Monday morning we began this little adventure by opening up with some statistics about different kinds of trash and how long they last (plastics being the worst). Then we watched the movie "An Inconvienent truth." It was a fascinating movie that really brought to light the serverity of the damage of our ecological state. It was cause for concern to be sure, so we took it a step further and challenged ourselves to be aware of how much waste we produce and ways to reduce that amount. BUT...this is Up With People and we do things in a slightly more hands-on fashion, and so we were required to carry ALL of the garbage that we produced over four days and then bring it in for a discussion on the last day. Well I thought I'd done pretty well until a thought occured to me... this small amount of trash is just one of seven billion people on the planet, and for just a few days. It made me think how true it is that change really begins one person at time, and that if people don't start changing there attitudes towards our environment, there won't be any more environment to care about. Over all it was a truely enligtning experience. It made me very aware of the litle things that people do make such a big difference.

On Friday we went to Mount St. Helens which is a huge volcano that is explosive and very much still active. It was AWESOME!!!. You can see in the picture smoke rising from the top - hence the label "active". It was a beautiful day and we had an wonderful view of the volcano. Portland was a great host city and I will be sad to leave all the people and sights and sounds here. Next up??? LAS VEGAS!!!!! WOOHOO

Laughter, funny moments, and randomness

It is hard to believe we are almost half-way done with our tour. In less then two weeks we begin our European tour starting with Milan, Italy. Its unreal how fast the time has gone, so I thought I'd share a couple of funny moments from the shows. As everyone knows, no show is ever perfect, but we get as close as we can. One of my fellow castmates, Sophie, who is from China, is an MC for the show, and once during her MC said "hi my name is China and I come from Sophie." It was a definately a blog moment. Another such moment came when Cassidy, from Denver, CO said, "Hi my name is Cassidy, and I am from right here in Denver CO" when it wasn't Colorado at all. These and countless other funny moments are what make this cast so special and memorable. I love the random conversations and the intense dialogues that occur. I know I mentioned this in a previous blog but I'll say it again; I have grown more in the last two months then in my entire life combined, and yet there is still so much more growing I have yet to do. The learning never ends here with Up With People. Its astonishing.

It has been brought to my attention that I have not explained how cities work and how we get from one city to the next. well my friends...allow me to enlighten you... We travel by tour bus from city to city with 60 of us crammed in to a bus with one tiny bathroom. We ocupy our time by sleeping, chatting, listening to music, watching movies, and more sleeping. Bus rides are an experience in themselves. Once we arrive at a city we have a city meeting and learn a little about the city. After that we meet our host families for the time we are staying in that city and go home with them to settle in. During our stay in each city, we do community service and perform our show (among other things depending on the city). We learn a lot from our host families and get totaly emersed in the culture of that city. We also usually work in local schools with a diversity and awareness program targeted at middle schoolers. The program is called Stand For Peace.

Eureka was good if only for a few days. We arrived on Monday and left Thursday. then we went back to Oregon and headed to Coos Bay. Both cities were quick and busy with a double show day in Coos Bay plus a Mini Show in the morning. In Coos Bay we were at the Egyptian theatre, which is something like 80 years old and completely fabulous. It was beautiful, and I had a fun host family (as all of them are). Right now we are in Portland, Oregon. It is a fantastic city full of awesome sights and people. my host family is awesome as usual and took us out for a great pizza dinner last night. We have the rest of the week though so I am excited to see what else is in store for us. I love Portland and feel very at home here, and the weather has been awesome! lots of great food and entertainment. Tomorrow is a community service day and we are working with a homeless shelter. It should be pretty interesting. Also this whole wee is environmental week. So today we watched "An Inconvienent Truth" and talked about reducing, reusing and recycling. So until thursday we have to carry a trash bag with us and collect every piece of waste that we create; water bottles, cans, wrappers, left over food we wasted, etc. then we are going to compare everything on Thursday. We have to carry our trash with us all day everyday everywhere we go. Its going to really be a good teaching tool. America is the number one producer of waste - I didn't know that until today. I knew we were bad, but I didn't know we were the worst. Its going to be good to learn more environmentally friendly methods of doing things.

This is what happens when you don't have internet...

So I have been without internet for the past couple of weeks. So I apologize for the delay in anything interesting other then my newly painted toes (which now are back to there normal disastrous state). So to begin… After Sierra Vista, AZ we traveled to the beautiful city of San Diego, CA. What an amazing city. The weather was perfect and I got some great beach time. We had some awesome CI projects and some great cast bonding time. Then on Sunday my host family, Jules (my roomie) and I went to the San Diego Zoo and had an awesome time! We saw Lions and Tigers and Bears (oh my) among many other animals. We had a huge beach party and I got to swim in the Pacific Ocean. From San Diego we went to Corcoran, CA where it was AT LEAST 110 degrees EVERY DAY!!!! It was blistering hot, but I had an amazing host family. I had enough Mexican food to feed a small country but all of it was awesome! It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I love that each host family has something different to offer and teach. It is such an amazing experience.
I am learning so much about myself. It’s hard to put in to words, but I am growing in so many ways. It’s interesting that this growth should happen around my 21st Birthday. Yes that is right folks. I, Laurel Long, am officially and legally an ADULT (enter twilight zone music here)!!! I celebrated my 21st birthday on September 5, 2007 and became an adult. It was a great day full of hugs and friends. I felt so loved. I turned 21 in Winston, Oregon, which is where we went after Corcoran. It was a beautiful change of scenery and weather (it was wonderfully cool). In Winston our big event was to perform at the Melon Festival, which has been a tradition in Winston for many many years. We had TONS of kettle corn, met some awesome people and had 1200 people in the audience. WHAT A RUSH! The energy in the show was amazing. Winston was a small community full of awesome people and beautiful scenery. On Sunday we went to Crater Lake. Talk about beauty!!! I have never ever seen water so blue. Its astounding how crystal clear the water is. It truly made me appreciate God’s hand in the beauty of nature. It was awe inspiring. Today on our travel day we went to the Red Wood National Forest on our way to Eureka, CA. I have never felt so small and insignificant. I couldn’t help but marvel at the majesty of these hundreds of year old trees. It was like they told a story but you had to listen and be silent. At the gift shop I read “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss – talk about an activist book. It really resonated with me. I know Eureka has lots more in store for me and I can’t wait to find out what’s next. Until next time!!!